10 



INDIAN- OF THE PLAINS 



four more posts are erected, ol much greater diameter than the outer 

 and rising to the heighl of ten or more feet above the ground. 

 These four posts stand in the corners ol a square oi about fifteen feet, 

 :md their tops are connected with four heavy logs or beams laid hori- 

 zontally. From the tour central beams to the smaller external beams, 

 long poles, as rafters, are stretched al an angle of aboul •'><) with the 

 horizon; and from i h«- outer beams to the earth a number of Bhorter 

 poles are laid .-it an angle of about 4.")°. Finally a number of Baplings 

 or rails arc laid horizontally to cover the space between the four central 

 beams, leaving only a hole for the combined skylight and chimney. 

 I'his frame is thru covered with willows, hay, and earth, as before men- 

 tioned; the covering being of equal depth over all parts of the frame. 

 Matthews, 1-5 . 



Houses of approximately the same type were used 

 by the Pawnee, Omaha, Ponca, Kansa, Missouri, and 

 Oto. The Osage, on the other hand, are credited with 

 the use of dome-shaped houses covered with mats and 

 hark, like the Ojibway and other Woodland tribes. 

 The Hidatsa type of lodge is, unlike the tipi. definitely 

 localized along the Missouri and the Platte, giving one 

 the impression that it must have originated within this 

 territory. The Omaha claim to have originally used 

 tipis and to have learned the use of earth-lodges from 

 the Arikara: likewise the Skidi-Pawnee claim the tipi 

 a- formerly their own dwelling. However, all these 

 tribes used tipis when on summer and winter trip- after 

 buffalo (p. 21 i. 



Some of the Eastern Dakota lived for a part of the 

 year in rectangular cabins of hark and pole- as did some 

 of the Woodland tribes. On the west, an oval or 

 conical brush or grass shelter seems to have preceded 

 the tipi. The Comanche were seen using both this 

 \ estern type of brush Lodge and the tipi in 1853. The 



